Less than a week after an attack on the Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP’s) office in Ghaziabad, an office of the rookie party in Aurangabad, Maharashtra, was vandalised on Tuesday.
The local AAP leadership suspects the involvement of “other political parties” in the attack.
According to
Harmeet Singh, AAP’s Aurangabad district secretary, four to five persons stormed the office around 12.30pm. Armed with rods and sticks, they broke window panes, an LCD television set, tables and other furniture.

The AAP was conducting a membership drive when the attack took place. It is carrying out a 17-day campaign (launched on January 16) across the country to enrol new members.

“An hour before the attack, the owner of the building telephoned our volunteer and asked him to remove the AAP banner. He warned that the office will be attacked if the banner was not removed.

“We agreed. But they did not wait, and four to five persons attacked the office with rods and sticks,” Singh said.

Buoyed after forming the government in Delhi, the AAP is setting up registration centres across the country to expedite its membership drive ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.

“This office was one such centre started by a volunteer. It is actually his workplace. The owner of the building is a member of (Union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar’s) Nationalist Congress Party. We have been receiving tremendous response in Aurangabad city. We suspect such acts are carried out by other political parties,” Singh said. AAP workers also alleged Rs. 24,000 in cash was stolen from the office, but said it did not belong to the AAP.

On January 8, the Hindu Raksha Dal, a saffron outfit, had come under the scanner following an attack on the AAP's Ghaziabad office in Uttar Pradesh, barely a kilometre from Delhi chief minister and AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal’s residence.